The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for picking up and threading magnetic tape from a supply reel through a tape loading machine. Prior Art
In typical prior art tape loading machines, the cassettes to be loaded move, one at a time, from a supply magazine to a loading station where the winding of a predetermined amount of magnetic tape onto the hubs located inside the cassette is automatically carried out. The tape is fed from a supply reel (commonly referred to as "pancake") which is rotatably mounted on a support hub.
Tape loading machines have reached a high degree of automation such that hand operations have been greatly reduced. The hand operations which remain are substantially restricted to the periodic arrangement of the cassettes to be loaded into the machine's supply magazine as well as the periodic replacement of empty pancakes.
The replacement of the pancake on the loading machine is, frequently, not limited to the removal of the out of tape pancake from the support hub and its replacement by a full pancake. Other operations may also be necessary in order to carry out the threading of the tape through the tape loading machine.
In greater detail, the operator must first pick up one end of the tape, commonly fastened to the pancake by an adhesive closure tab provided with a free portion projecting outwardly from the pancake itself. Then the tape must be partially unwound from the pancake and passed through a control unit designed to synchronize the motor associated with the pancake support hub and the motor causing the winding of the tape onto the cassette hub. Then the tape must pass over a counter wheel designed to measure the amount of tape wound into the cassette, as well as one or more guide rollers close to which are disposed several mechanisms for carrying out the different extraction, positioning, cutting and splicing operations necessary to complete the loading of the tape into the cassette.
Since it is often necessary to hand thread the tape through the tape loading machine, the possibility of entrusting a single operator with the management of many loading machines is reduced.